LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a suit of stars and stripes, and a loyal Marvel fan base behind him, actor Chris Evans once again brandishes the shield of superhero Captain America in a new film. In real life, the actor finds himself at odds with the demands of fame.

Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios sequel “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” out in U.S. and Canadian theaters on Friday, thrusts the patriotic superhero into battle with an elusive enemy.

LOS ANGELES, April 2 (Reuters) – With a suit of stars and
stripes, and a loyal Marvel fan base behind him, actor Chris
Evans once again brandishes the shield of superhero Captain
America in a new film. In real life, the actor finds himself at
odds with the demands of fame.

Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios sequel “Captain
America: The Winter Soldier,” out in U.S. and Canadian theaters
on Friday, thrusts the patriotic superhero into battle with an
elusive enemy.

In the footage shown to theater owners at the CinemaCon gathering in Las Vegas, a clip from the seventh installment of the “Fast and Furious” action franchise featured some of the final scenes filmed by actor Paul Walker before his sudden death in a California car crash in November last year.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dystopian thriller “Divergent,” the story of a society that divides people based on personality traits, dominated weekend movie charts with $56 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, kicking off a new franchise for “Hunger Games” producer Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Walt Disney Co family comedy “Muppets Most Wanted” finished in second place, nabbing $16.5 million from Friday through Sunday, according to estimates provided by Rentrak. Animated “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” produced by Dreamworks Animation Inc, took the No. 3 slot with $11.7 million.

LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Reuters) – Young actors Shailene
Woodley and Theo James arrived on the Hollywood set of the
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” TV talk show by sliding above a cheering
crowd while harnessed to a zip line, a dramatic entrance to
spark interest in “Divergent,” the movie Lions Gate
Entertainment Corp hopes to make its next hit franchise.

The studio behind the mega-hit “Hunger Games” movies is
betting again on a popular series of best-selling young adult
novels set in a dystopian future. The “Divergent” books, about a
society divided into factions by personality traits, have sold
more than 17 million copies worldwide.

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co amended guidelines on Tuesday for the selection of its chairman, persuading investors to withdraw a proposal to grant large shareholders more say in electing directors just hours before it was to have gone to a vote.

The last-minute change states that the chairman should be an independent director unless justified in writing. It averted a potential contest, and investors re-elected Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and nine other directors to the media company’s board at its annual shareholder meeting.

PORTLAND, Oregon, March 18 (Reuters) – The highly
anticipated next installment of the “Star Wars” franchise will
be set 30 years after “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,” Walt
Disney Co.’s chief executive officer Bob Iger said on Tuesday at
the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

Disney purchased “Star Wars” production company LucasFilm
for $4.05 billion in 2012 and announced it would release three
new films in the popular sci-fi series. Fans have been avidly
awaiting details of the next film, “Star Wars: Episode VII.”

(Reuters) – Walt Disney Co shareholders are expected to vote at its March 18 annual meeting on a resolution that asks the company to allow large shareholders to nominate board members, the latest bid by investor groups to win “proxy access” rights.

The Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds and the California State Teachers Retirement System proposed that the board allow owners of at least 3 percent of the company’s stock be empowered to nominate up to 20 percent of the board, according to a regulatory filing from Disney on January 24. Under the non-binding proxy access proposal, shareholders must own their stake for three years before they have nomination rights.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Anne Sweeney, the president of Walt Disney Co’s Disney/ABC Television Group, will leave the media company in January after 18 years to pursue a career in television directing, the company said on Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Historical drama “12 Years a Slave” was awarded the top prize at Sunday night’s Academy Awards show, claiming the Oscar for best picture and boosting the revenue its distributor Fox Searchlight can expect from added theater and home entertainment sales.

“12 Years a Slave” won a total of three Oscars, including for Lupita Nyong’o for best supporting actress. “Gravity,” distributed by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros., was the night’s big winner with seven Oscars, including one for Alfonso Cuaron as best director.